


Hidden in the Deep

by GriffinExtinct



Category: Sumerian Mythology
Genre: Gen, implied bestiality sort of but HER HUSBAND IS MYTHICALLY A BULL OKAY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 23:44:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5109845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GriffinExtinct/pseuds/GriffinExtinct
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ereskigal mourns her husband</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hidden in the Deep

> __I don’t wanna be old and sleep alone  
>  An empty house is not a home  
> I don’t wanna be old and feel afraid   
>   
> And if I need anything at all   
> I need a place   
> That’s hidden in the deep   
> Where lonely angels sing you to your sleep   
> Though all the world is broken   
>   
> I need a place   
> Where I can make my bed   
> A lover’s lap where I can lay my head 
> 
>  

The halls of Irkalla cannot truly be navigated by anyone but Ereshkigal. There are ministers who know their way, but only she herself knows each crack in the earth, each black pit, each path that leads further down into the cold earth. 

In lightless caverns, the queen moves with ease. Above the surface is brightness that burns her eyes and skin, and treacherous gods who have no honour, but here there is only ghosts and-

No Gugalanna.

It was her sister: evil, petty, jealous, vicious, vain. Her sister, that monster of a woman, who had demanded the Bull of Heaven with only her usual selfish pride in mind. What did Inanna care for anyone else? What did Inanna care for love? (She, that love goddess who didn’t even understand the idea.)

Ereshkigal, the dark one, the great lady below, the keeper of the dead, she understood love. She had pressed her face into the warm flank of Gugalanna and breathed him in. She ran her hands over the strong muscles of legs that shook the world. She’d felt his hot breath on her bare flesh and it had been the only warmth she ever craved. A beast - towering and ruthless and mighty. All the things that Ereshkigal had carved herself into being when they’d dragged her down to rule the cold kingdom no one else wanted. 

She finds a place where the floor dips slowly and she crouches, touching fingers to check. Hoofmarks, dug up earth where Gugalanna had once made himself a space to sleep. Her husband wasn’t made for even the finest beds and Ereshkigal had learned to prefer the bare earth as well, curling beside him, under him, his heavy breathes echoing against stone walls and becoming a calming mantra.

Crouched there, her face creases, a show of emotion that no one sees. For a long time she’s still, trying to remember everything about the last time she was with Gugalanna. But things grow distant in the land of the dead, even for its ruler, and Ereshkigal lies down, willing sleep to greet her in the body print of her dead lover.


End file.
